Statement of Commitment on the Exemption of Export Restrictions on the World Food Programme – Joint Press Release by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply

A group of 79 countries, including Brazil, out of 164 members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), issued today, January 21, in Geneva, a joint statement of commitment to not to impose export prohibitions or restrictions on products purchased for humanitarian purposes by the World Food Programme. The group of cosponsors represents more than 70% of the world’s agricultural exports.

Brazil has played a prominent role in WTO negotiations in this regard. Last June, the country expressed its support for the initiative launched by the Cairns Group, which, among other commitments within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, advocated the WFP exemption. This initiative is also in line with Brazil’s commitment within the G20 scope to continue to work with international organizations to coordinate actions and to identify and share good practices with the aim of facilitating the international flow of the needed goods and services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Brazil has also closely followed the discussions within the scope of the OECD on the COVID-19 impact on food security, which outlined the country’s ability to continuously meet its commitments on global food provision. Brazil’s engagement confirms its commitment to the promotion of food security not only domestically but also around the globe, thus contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 2.

The context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the prohibitions or restrictions imposed on agricultural exports in 2020 amplified the existing challenges facing WFP operations.

The Programme estimates that the number of severely food insecure people in the countries where it operates could have increased to 270 million by the end of 2020 - an 82 percent increase from before the pandemic.

The Brazilian government has established an important partnership with the WFP to respond to international calls for humanitarian aid. Examples of these Brazilian humanitarian initiatives, always in close collaboration with the WFP, include: i) provide food security, in 2020 and 2021, to 5,000 children aged 6 to 59 months in Namibia and to 1,220 Malian ethnic Peul refugees sheltered in the Sénou camp, 30 km south of the capital Bamako; ii) supply and distribute 4 thousand tons of processed rice from Brazil to Lebanon and another 4 thousand tons of the same product to Mozambique, in the aftermath of major disasters (explosion in the Port of Beirut, in August 2020, and cyclones that devastated Mozambique's food production capacity in 2019).